The cover of the comic is based on a real place, the Rancho Bakersfield Motel.
The Rancho is where my crew and I stayed when we worked in Bakersfield. Working in B-town, as it is known on the CB, or Bakerspatch as it was also known, meant either building or tearing down steel storage tanks in the oilpatch, or loading or unloading steel at the yard I rented out off Rosedale Highway, just west of what is now called Buck Owens Boulevard.
The Grapevine is a long steep mountain grade between Bakersfield and the Tehachapi mountains that must be driven between L.A. and Bakersfield. It was always a little bit exciting to bail of that mountain down the Grapevine into Bakerspatch, especially when the rig you're dirving is old and loaded down heavy. For my friends who have my Truckin'/Country compilation CD, you will hear references to steep mountain grades and runaway trucks (Track 26 Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves). I have had that happen to me (or I should have said, I caused my truck to runaway) twice and had to ride it out to the bottom of the grade. See, all you have to do, is let the truck get going faster down the hill than the brakes and engine would hold her back. Get going too fast, or miss a gear, and unless you get back in control really quickly, and you'll find yourself unable to slow down until you hit flat ground. God help you, because you're sitting between 44 thousand pounds of load and whatever you run into, if you can't stay on top of her. That's not a hazard I've had to face lately.
Anyway, The first real story in this comic is about a runaway truck coming down the grapevine into B-town.
Yes, I know. I really must get a flat bed scanner.
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